RIYADH: Qatar is set to attract foreign asset managers as its sovereign wealth fund dedicates up to 1 billion Qatari riyals ($275 million) toward a market-making program.
The program will promote price discovery and diversify the country’s capital markets, reported the Qatar Investment Authority on Tuesday.
In turn, this move will enable the market to pull in more foreign asset managers to invest in the country’s local shares.
Additionally, it will boost liquidity on the Qatar Stock Exchange, noted the $445 billion sovereign wealth fund.
Set to operate over the next five years, the market-making program will cover 90 percent of the size of the market capitalization listed on the local bourse.
Saudi-Qatari trade ties
Qatari Minister of Commerce and Industry Mohammed Al-Thani met with Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih on Tuesday.
In the meeting, Al-Thani highlighted how its economic policies effectively encouraged investors and businessmen to invest in the country.
Al-Falih flew to Doha to participate in the three-day Qatar Economic Forum.
In January, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund increased its stake in Credit Suisse to just under 7 percent, becoming the Swiss bank’s second-largest shareholder after Saudi National Bank, indicating that its Gulf investor base is growing in importance.
Cleantech leadership
The country is also set to drive the growth of the clean technology industry in the Middle East and Africa as its favorable policies and advanced technological infrastructure present investment opportunities worth $75 billion, revealed an industry report earlier this month.
Qatar’s Investment Promotion Agency stated that the country’s sustainability initiatives, abundant natural resources, and an early-mover advantage in green hydrogen production made the gas-rich nation an emerging leader in the cleantech industry.
“With its abundant solar energy resources, Qatar is well positioned to take advantage of hydrogen production, which is essential to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors,” the report said.
The report pointed out that the support of government policies in Qatar and the Middle East and North Africa region has a vital role in the growth of the cleantech sector.
Qatar hopes to attract foreign asset managers through its new market-making program
https://arab.news/j7tx5
Qatar hopes to attract foreign asset managers through its new market-making program
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
